The present invention refers to an absorbent article such as a diaper and an incontinence guard comprising a liquid permeable topsheet, a liquid impermeable backsheet and an absorbent body enclosed therebetween, said article having a front portion, a rear portion and a crotch portion therebetween, and further is provided with a pair of belt members attached to the rear portion, alternatively the front portion, of the article and which are intended to be fastened together around the waist of the wearer and where said front portion, alternatively said rear portion, is provided with fastening means intended to be fastened to the belt members, in such a way that the article will assume a pantlike shape, where the belt members form a part of the waist portions of the pant. The invention also refers to a method for manufacturing the article.
Diapers and incontinence guards for incontinent adults usually have a garment portion holding an absorbent body in place against the user""s body and attachment means which hold the garment portion in place also when the user is moving. A common type of attachment means are adhesive tapes or hook and loop fasteners of the touch-and-close type which directly attach the front and rear portions of the absorbent article to each other. It is further known, through e g EP-A-0 287 388, EP-A-0 409 307, EP-A-0 605 012 and FR-A-2 586 558, to attach the front and rear portions of the article by means of a belt, at which the possibilities to adjust the fit are improved. The belt further provides a simplified change of diaper or incontinence guard, especially when the wearer is standing.
The ends of the belt members can however be difficult to grasp when the article shall be applied to a wearer, especially if the wearer is lying down and the belt ends get caught under the wearer. Besides the long belt ends may cause processability problems during the manufacturing of the article. It is therefore a desire that the belt ends before use are folded and gathered at an easily accessible location on the article.
The belt members are usually straight. It has however proven that a belt having an arcuate shape sometimes can give an improved fit around the waist of the wearer. Such an arcuate belt is known through WO 91/08725. This document does however not give any solution to the problem of prefolding the belt members during manufacture.
Through WO 86/04812 it is previously known to fold the attachment straps of a diaper, i e the straps that carry the attachment means that fasten up the front and rear portions of the diaper, in accordion-like fashion before they are applied to the diaper in order to simplify manufacture and packaging of the products. The folded attachment straps are kept together by a weak adhesive applied in narrow zones in order to be easily released and unfolded when the diaper is ready for use. The attachment straps are straight and do not constitute a belt as defined in the present invention.
The object of the present invention is to accomplish a belt-provided absorbent article, such as a diaper or incontinence guard, said belt having an arcuate shape with improved fit accomplished by simple manufacturing steps, said belt members being folded for improving their handling during the manufacturing process and the application of the product on the user. This has according to the invention been solved by the fact that the belt members before use are double-folded and cut in an arcuate shape in which the tangent to the arcuate curve formed by the respective longitudinal edges of the belt members, in the area of the fold makes a substantially right angle to the fold, that the belt members in their double folded condition are applied to the rear portion of the article, and that they when the article is to be used are intended to be unfolded, at which the belt members in their unfolded position form an arcuate shape where the portions on either sides of the fold are the mirror image of each other.
According to a preferred embodiment the belt members are held in place in their double-folded position against the rear portion of the article by means of an easily breakable seal.
The invention also refers to a method for manufacturing a belt-provided article, at which the belt portions before they are applied to the article are folded double and then cut in an arcuate shape, where the tangent to the arcuate curve formed by the respective longitudinal side edges of the belt members, in the area of the fold make a substantially right angle to the fold, and that the belt members in their double folded position are applied to the rear portion of the article.
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